Film articles by Witney Seibold

Like a lot of Terry Gilliam’s films, his latest, “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus” is a strange and chaotic affair that is more interested in stuffing your eyeballs with endless circus-on-acid imagery than it is in a cogent narrative. (more…)

One would assume that, upon hearing that Clint Eastwood (who will be 80 this year) was making a sports movie, that it would be, without fail, a film about an underdog baseball team. Perhaps playing in the 1930s. Odd, then, that Eastwood would decide to make a film about the historical World Cup match between the South African and New Zealand rugby teams. Odder still, that the impetus for the underdog team to win was a not-so-secret presidential decree from the saintly Nelson Mandela. (more…)

I love movies about people who behave compulsively. Gamblers, sex addicts, thieves, mysophobics (that’s fear of germs and filth). Mark Whitaker (Matt Damon), the main character of Steven Soderbergh’s “The Informant!,” is a compulsive liar. (more…)

The insults fly, rapid fire, from the lips of all the characters in “In the Loop.” People froth, underestimate, browbeat, belittle, lie, and outright insult their peers and co-workers. At times, it almost feels like a particularly witty and British version of one on David Mamet’s films. What’s more, “In the Loop” is full of impenetrable political shoptalk that audiences will have trouble understanding, and, it seems pretty clear, few of the characters fully understand themselves. (more…)

He saunters into her apartment, smug grin on his face. She awaits him there, wearing very little, also smiling. “How are you going to kill me today?” she asks mischievously. “I’m going to cut your throat,” he replies. They make love. (more…)

To its credit, Andrew Fleming’s new comedy “The In-Laws” does have a few slight improvements to the usual Wedding Comedy. For one, it’s a Jewish wedding, and we briefly glimpse a female rabbi. There’s also a part in it for Robin Tunney who, while having made other crappy movies in her day (“End of Days” springs to mind), is able to keep dignity, and bring a shred of integrity to the otherwise dull proceedings. O.k. Maybe those aren’t stellar improvements, but at least they’re differences enough to make “The In-Laws” stand out. O.k. O.k. “The In-Laws” doesn’t stand out. It’s a mediocre comedy that wastes the talents of the people involved. (more…)

Judd Apatow, the director of “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up,” had nothing to do with John Hamburg’s “I Love You, Man,” but it is now clear that Apatow’s comic influence has officially rattled the zeitgeist cage. (more…)

Welcome.

By all means look around.

I have written hundreds of film reviews, dozens of long essays on classics films, complete series overviews in my Series Project, a few rounds of an entertaning games called Name That Script, and even the odd book review for good measure.

All of my articles are succinct, professionally written (the occasional typo notwithstanding), and, one would hope, engaging and entertaining.